Computer-Based Program to Promote Exercise Among Sedentary Employees

描述(申请人提供)：体力活动在公共健康中起着至关重要的作用。不幸的是，久坐的生活方式在美国非常普遍，久坐与肥胖、糖尿病、心血管疾病和某些癌症等健康风险之间存在着既定的联系。经济数据表明，缺乏运动和肥胖占美国医疗保健成本的近10%。近年来，许多量身定制的生活方式和锻炼促进计划通过互联网提供，事实证明，基于网络的锻炼计划可以有效地增加身体活动。然而，也有研究表明，大多数项目(A)没有接触到目标受众(即，需要该项目的人一般不太可能使用它)，(B)未能产生该项目有效所需的联系频率，(C)缺乏提供改变行为所需的社会支持的能力，(D)未能针对具体的、个性化的行为定制信息，(E)没有直接解决锻炼障碍，以及(F)不促进锻炼习惯的形成。因此，我们建议(A)在已被证明有效的、针对久坐不动的员工的基于网络的运动促进干预措施的基础上进行构建和更新，以及(B)通过使用谷歌最近发布的标准应用程序编程接口(API)的公司工作站生产力套件，创新地将该程序整合到员工的日常工作流程中。拟议的计划将一直存在于员工的桌面上，并通过谷歌日历和Gmail无缝地融入员工的日常活动。将根据定义的用户域(例如部门)中的员工建立工作/支持小组。与无处不在的谷歌工作场所应用程序的完全集成将使我们能够(A)接触到广泛的久坐受众，减少参与的自我选择障碍，(B)增加联系时间(例如，当用户登录他/她的账户时，他/她将被提醒当天计划的体育活动)，(C)根据用户的特征和特征(例如，健康水平、变化阶段、锻炼目标、锻炼历史、对特定锻炼行为的偏好、锻炼原因、接近或避免行为，以及感知到的障碍)，制定高度定制、个性化和适应性的锻炼计划。(D)将锻炼计划与日历和电子邮件功能相结合，以启动行为意图，并潜在地在接近预定活动的时间内提供替代行为，(E)发送定制的激励消息，(F)向用户发送个性化反馈，以及(G)包括社交网络功能。这些设计特点将共同促进有规律的体育活动，并支持形成可持续的定期体育活动习惯。 与公共健康相关：久坐不动的生活方式的流行给美国带来了一个重大的、代价高昂的公共健康问题。该项目建立在已被证明是有效的、基于网络的、针对久坐不动的员工的运动促进干预措施的基础上并进行了更新。我们建议通过公司的工作站生产力套件，使用谷歌刚刚发布的标准应用程序编程接口(API)(即Google Apps Marketplace)，将促进身体活动的计划与员工的日常工作流程相结合。这款谷歌应用程序有可能增加久坐不动的员工目标群体的体力活动。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Physical activity plays a critical role in public health. Unfortunately, the prevalence of sedentary lifestyles is extremely high in the U.S., and there are well-established links between sedentariness and health risks such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular risks and certain cancers. Economic data suggest that physical inactivity and obesity account for nearly 10% of health-care costs in the U.S. In recent years many tailored lifestyle and exercise promoting programs have become available through the Internet, and it has been demonstrated that web-based exercise programs can effectively increase physical activity. However, it has also been shown that most programs (a) do not reach the target audience (i.e., in general people who need the program are less likely to use it),3 (b) fail to produce the frequency of contact needed for the program to be effective, (c) lack the capability of providing social support necessary to change behavior, (d) fail to tailor messages to specific, individualized behaviors, (e) do not directly address barriers to exercise, and (f) do not facilitate the formation of exercise habits. We therefore propose to (a) build upon and update an already proven to be efficacious, web-based exercise-promoting intervention that targets sedentary employees, and (b) innovatively integrate that program within an employee's daily workflow via the company's work-station productivity suite using a standard Application Programming Interface (API) recently released by Google (i.e., Google Apps Marketplace). The proposed program will be ever-present on the employee's desktop and seamlessly incorporated into the employee's everyday activities via Google Calendar and Gmail. A work/support group will be established based upon the employees that are in a defined user domain (e.g., department). The full integration with ubiquitous Google workplace applications will allow us to (a) reach a broad sedentary audience with fewer self- selection barriers to participation, (b) increase contact time (e.g., when the user logs into his/her account, he/she will be reminded of the planned physical activities for the day), (c) develop a highly tailored, personalized, and adaptive exercise plan based on the user's traits and characteristics (e.g., level of fitness, stage of change, exercise goals, exercise history, preference for specific exercise behaviors, reasons for exercising, approach or avoidance behavior, and perceived barriers), (d) integrate the exercise plan with calendar and email functions to prime behavioral intentions and potentially offer alternative behaviors in close time-proximity to the scheduled activity, (e) send tailored motivational messages, (f) send personalized feedback to the user, and (g) include social networking functionalities. Together these design features will promote regular physical activity and support forming a sustainable habit of regular physical activity. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The prevalence of sedentary lifestyles poses a significant and costly public health issue to the United States. This project builds upon and updates an already proven to be efficacious, web-based exercise- promoting intervention that targets sedentary employees. We propose to integrate a physical activity-promoting program with an employee's daily workflow via the company's work-station productivity suite using a standard Application Programming Interface (API) just released by Google (i.e., Google Apps Marketplace). This Google application has the potential to increase physical activity in the target group of sedentary workers.